Among Mortals: A Dream, A Fight and where'd the mist go?
by RachelRavenclaw16
Summary: A nightmare of drowning in class. Monsters in the school. Percy has climbed out of Tartarus and defeated Giants. Now, he must move on with his life and complete school. It's hard to act normal when memories of the past take over


Percy is sitting in class, staring at his teacher. Mr Morrison had on gold-rimmed glasses that he placed just a little too forward on his nose. They were round and seemed shinier than they should be. As he talked, Percy focused on the little glint of blue on the glass. No matter which way Mr Morrison looked, the blue glimmered just the same. Percy felt so tired, sitting in that class, Mr Morrison's monotonous ranting, staring at the glasses. He closed his eyes…

There was a pond or something with nothing around it. Annabeth was floating in the middle. The water was a shiny blue so he couldn't see through it. Annabeth smiled at him and beckoned him to come closer. He took one look at her bare shoulders and automatically stepped towards her. As soon as he moved, the water darkened. Percy took a step back and the water's edge seemed to creep forward a few inches, darkening even more. He didn't dare to move. He looked at Annabeth. She was still smiling but she didn't notice the water rising around her, her golden curls blurring as they swirled in the water.

"Annabeth, get out of there!" he called to her. She cocked her head at him. Her shoulders were now completely blanketed by the shiny black water. Percy inched forward but the water stopped shining and began to slither up Annabeth's neck. He lunged into the water. He yelled as it burned his skin. "Take my hand!" he gasped and stretched his hand towards Annabeth. She just stared at him, smiling and the water rose above her mouth. Percy let out a cry as he pushed through the rising water. He felt like his skin was been pressed by hot blades. He glanced behind him to see the shore and it had disappeared. The pond had overtaken it. He whipped around to grab Annabeth and she had vanished. "Where are you?" he cried as he spun around, hissing when the acid water splashed up to his neck. She had fallen below the water. He needed to find her. He took a shaky breath and dived down. Overwhelming pain struck every inch of his body. He unwillingly screamed and the second he opened his mouth, he lost all air and his mouth filled with the black acid. All thoughts of Annabeth left his mind - he needed air. He pushed himself up the water, trying to find the surface. It had disappeared. His lungs burned for air. He felt his head pulse and thoughts blacken. Before he passed out, he let out one more scream.

"Jackson!"

Percy swung his head up from his desk. He opened his eyes to a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, inches from his face. Mr. Morrison backed away from Percy's desk, eyebrows furrowed concernedly. Percy's heart raced. Did he say anything out loud? Had he even screamed? He glanced at his classmates and none of them seemed concerned with him or Mr. Morrison. The girl sitting behind to him was picking at her nails and the kid to his left was reading a manga comic. He could still feel the acid in his throat. Percy started to raise his hand to ask if he could grab a drink of water - no, he didn't want water. He pressed his hand to the desk to stop the shaking. Mr. Morrison was talking again and suddenly everyone was reaching for something from their bags, maybe a notebook. Percy absently stuck his hand in his bad, waiting to see what instruction he missed. Yeah, it was notebooks. Before he could slide his from his bag, he stilled. A sound coming from outside the glass. Mechanical whirring and the sound of metal hitting the floor. He glanced around to see if anyone else noticed. They were copying something down. Percy was reaching for a pen when he heard the hooves. Hooves and metal. ' _Vlacas',_ he muttered.

"Sir, I'm going to the bathroom".

Mr Morrison opened his mouth to speak but Percy already had Riptide in hand and was out the door. He reached the hall and spotted the empousa. He uncapped his weapon and scrunched his nose as she hissed, "Heello, hero."

No matter how many times he faced empousa, he could never get over the combo of donkey and cyborg legs. She seemed to be about to speak when he pounced. In one swift movement, he leaped forward and sliced her in two. Gold dust exploded around him. Great. Now he's made a mess.

"Ah!" a shrill voice shrieked. "My sister!" Another empousa staggered around the corner towards him. This one meant business. Her dark hair hung over her face, giving her an element of creepiness. She clawed at him but he easily sidestepped it.

"Sister!" Another voice screamed. He whipped his head around to see another empousa rounding the corner. Seriously? How big was this family?

"I know this demigod!" the dark-haired one snarled. "He's the one that vanquished our good friend Kelli." The other sister squeaked furiously. The dark-haired empousa began to circle Percy, "Ah, yesss, I do know this hero. Crawled his way from Tartarus he did." Percy flinched at the name. "You can tell," she drawled, "because of the look in his eyes, like he's not all there." He swung his sword at her and she jumped out of the way. Surprisingly agile with her mismatched bottom half.

"Nice try, Perseus. I know you love a good _monster kill._ Always banishing someone to Tartarus. Isn't that what you did to that forgetful Titan?" Bob. Percy's heart dropped.

"Shut up!' And he unleashed himself onto them. Sidestepping the talkative empousa as she lunged with her claws, readied himself. Before she could regain her balance he smacked her neck with the flat of his sword and she tumbled into the lockers. Before he could finish her, the sister ran towards him. She had lost all appearance of a human and had taken on the classic empousa flaming hair. As she leaped onto him, her flaming locks grazed his shoulder. He gave out a yell and pushed her off of him, stabbing her in the stomach before she could fall down. She exploded into dust. His shoulder burned, but he had the other empousa to worry about. She had gotten up and had her claws out and now her hair was flaming as well. She somehow grabbed a bundle of flames and aimed them at Percy. He dove out of the way as her fireball dissolved where he had been standing. Before he could rise, she was suddenly leaning over him, trying to claw his throat. He rolled away, just in time, but her claw snagged his other shoulder. This time, he whipped around and sliced her neck with the sharp side. The last empousa burst into dust. Percy stood in the empty hall, panting.

He shook his hair out and brushed the monster dust off his clothes. Capping riptide, he glanced down at his mangled arms. Turns out, they had sliced more than his shoulder. On his left, he had the ugly raw burn and a singed t-shirt. On his right, he had a deep cut across the shoulder and another bleeding claw mark across his forearm. Percy glanced around the hall for something to - he spotted a sweater on a ledge next to a row of lockers. He lifted it to his nose and gave it a weary sniff. It'll do. He gingerly slid his arms into the sweater, took a deep breath and walked into the class. No one was sitting anymore. They gaped at him wordlessly as he walked in. Did they hear anything from the hall? He decided to play dumb.

"Jackson, what were you doing?" Mr Morrison demanded, glasses hanging dangerously low on his nose. Percy cleared his throat,

"Bathroom, like I said," and he took a seat and opened his notebook. His classmates looked shocked. Too shocked. He glanced around. Even the manga kid was looking at him.

"Uh, something wrong?" he stammered, heat rising to his cheeks.

"Yeah, Jackson," Neal countered, raising his voice. "What the hell just happened?" Oh no. Percy stared at the wall connected to the hallway. Not wall. Window.

"Yeah, you idiot," Neal continued. "The freakin' blinds aren't down today." Percy's eyes flitted to the blinds that had pushed aside. How had he not noticed? His mouth felt dry. Now he wished he'd actually gone for that drink of water. What did the mist make them see? Neal stepped towards Percy, glowering over him. "What the hell was that?" He took another step dangerously close to Percy, looking like he wanted to shove him.

"Neal stop it!" a soft voice implored. A short girl with light brown hair made her way through the desks. Her name was Emma or Emily or something. All the other students seemed to be frozen. "He's hurt." She held out her hand. He gaped at her. Emma raised her brows, "The sweater." The shock of the situation left Percy willing to do anything she said. He swallowed and peeled of the sweater, clenching his jaw so he wouldn't make a sound as the fabric rubbed against his burned skin.

AN Yes, this is unfinished, but after a lot of writers block I decided to post it anyways

also I recently re-edited this piece


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